When do you pull the plug?

[SippyCup]

At what point in the process do you guys finally come to the conclusion that a certain combo isn’t going to work?

Here’s what I got going on. Newer 22 arc barreled action dropped in a chassis. All the factory loads I’ve fed it have been less than 1”. I have one solid hand load that give me consistent 3/4” at 100 yards. The guns accurate.
I just gave up on a combo with 62gr. ELD-VT over a bed of Varget. I tried different brass, different primers, after doing ladder loads that’s showed little to no potential. I eventually found a combo that gave me 1.5” group but it was all vertical spacing. Leading up to this point the groups were 2-3 inches with no consistency. I took the 1.5” vertical group combo and tried a seating depth test doing .010” increments from mag length all the way to .100” jump. My starting point was .040” jump.
After the seating depth test I decided to give up on this combo. I’ve never not struck gold with Varget but there’s a first time for everything.

 

[Luked]

Did you try a different powder with the same bullet?
Nothing wrong with Varget as I use quite a bit of it too. But could just be something that your combo doesn't like much.

 

[SippyCup]

Did you try a different powder with the same bullet?
Nothing wrong with Varget as I use quite a bit of it too. But could just be something that your combo doesn't like much.

I’m going to try staball match next. I was really hoping to find something with Varget cuz it temp stable and I have a few pounds on hand

 

[Billogna]

Thread 'Painless load development (mine)'

Oct 25, 2021

I have had multiple people ask me to lay out how I do load development being that what I do is different. Since Shaen @Shooter71 just rebarreled a Tikka 595 in 6XC I thought it would be easy to show how I do it. It’s a Master Sporter with a T3 lite profiled 20” barrel- keep in mind it is a T3 LITE barrel. So by conventional “wisdom” it should be more picky and less accurate than a heavy barrel. His work is shoddy (), but I bet I can overcome it.

The rifle-


First was @Unknown Munitions factory load with 105gr Berger Hybrids. 5 rounds to zero, 5 for a...

• Formidilosus
• Replies: 1,261
• Forum: Reloading

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This thread has saved me SO much time and money chasing my tail, and wasting components. It's definitely worth a read!

 

[khart_6882]

If you have one solid hand load that gives you 3/4” groups then why are you still experimenting?

 

[Schmo]

I’m going to try staball match next. I was really hoping to find something with Varget cuz it temp stable and I have a few pounds on hand

Try a VV powder in the same burn rate as Varget.

 

[Luked]

Forms write up on how he does his development is really interesting.
I was skeptical. but it 100% works.
The thing that got me as Form says. if he knows what powder and bullet he wants to use thats what he uses. If it dosent work he changes.
If I were in your shoes I would try a different powder if that bullet is what you are set on using.

And also, as said above. If you have one load that works great. What bullet and powder are you using for it?
Is the bullet much different than the 62 ELD-VT that you are having issues with?

 

[Judd]

As soon as you think that thought...cut bait. I wasted a bunch of components on a 6.5x47 barrel once and the important lesson it taught me was to cut bait sooner and not attempt to force feed stuff.